Training in Orthodontics at Medical College-Varna during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Orthodontics is a specialty which deals with the prevention and treatment of dental abnormalities and deformities. According to the Unified State Requirements for training in the specialty “Dental Technician”, the discipline of Orthodontics has a schedule of 180 academic hours. The devices included in the curriculum are single-jaw and double-jaw and are produced with the help of dental phantom heads and clinical models. The training in Dental Mechanics aims to enable students to develop as specialists who are able to integrate their knowledge of different disciplines and transform their skills into the necessary abilities and habits for a successful dental practice. Our research aims to study the students’ satisfaction with their training in Orthodontics during the Covid-19 pandemic. A sociological method has been applied. Some of the questions are borrowed from the questionnaire of the Central Commission for Quality at the Medical University of Varna. The survey was conducted at the end of March 2022 and covered 78.50% of students who were studying or completed their studies in the discipline (79% of second-year students and 78% of third-year students). The majority of the respondents attended on a regular basis the lectures and the dental practice activities held either in the online platform Blackboard or as live training. It was estimated that the training in the electronic environment, which was carried out in the Medical College of Varna due to the pandemic, is adequate and effective in terms of theoretical and practical training of students in the discipline.